Publisher Description
Clint Smith's debut poetry collection, Counting Descent, is a coming of age story that seeks to complicate our conception of lineage and tradition. Smith explores the cognitive dissonance that results from belonging to a community that unapologetically celebrates black humanity while living in a world that often renders blackness a caricature of fear. His poems move fluidly across personal and political histories, all the while reflecting on the social construction of our lived experiences. Smith brings the reader on a powerful journey forcing us to reflect on all that we learn growing up, and all that we seek to unlearn moving forward.
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About Clint Smith
Clint Smith is the author of the narrative nonfiction book How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery across America, which was a #1 New York Times bestseller, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction and the Hillman Prize for Book Journalism, and was selected as one of the 10 best books of 2021 by the New York Times. His poetry collection, Counting Descent, won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. He received his BA degree in English from Davidson College and his PhD in education from Harvard University. He is a staff writer at The Atlantic.